Blues belter Irma Thomas, who shot to fame with soulful 1960s-era renditions of “(You Can Have My Husband but) Don’t Mess with My Man,” “It’s Raining” and “Time Is On My Side,” will be honored today with a new bronze statue at Musical Legends Park in New Orleans.

Tab Benoit plays the blues with all of the natural fury, sweet romance and dark mysteries of Louisiana — so neatly matching his home state’s essence in structure and feel that it might be easy to call him the Bayou State’s Stevie Ray Vaughan.

I made it through the first song and a half before getting bored. Mars Volta’s last album was very strong, I thought, though it also abandoned the craziness that pretty much defined them in the past. That’s about all I can listen to now — maybe the first album and EP, once in a great while. Everything else, I justRead More

Back when I was taking guitar lessons, my teacher turned me on to a whole pile of players like Jim Hall (my teacher was so into Hall that he actually attended a taping of the Merv Griffin just because Hall was in Griffin’s band), Gene Bertoncini and Howard Roberts. I’ve still got the tape made from my teacher’s record, butRead More

Australian singer-songwriter Lez Miles, best known as a founding member and lead guitarist with the 1980s hitmakers Adelaide, has crafted a cinematic project that follows the story of a soldier named Franklin.